How Colorado handles a case
What happens after an arrest anywhere in Colorado: who decides release first, how fast a person sees a judge, which courts hear the case, and who runs the offices around them. Every county in the state works under these rules.
From arrest to court
- Who decides release first
Before any individual bond decision, the jail may release a person under local pretrial release policies or the judicial district's bond schedule, which must account for the person's circumstances and not only the charge. Then a judge, magistrate, or bond hearing officer holds a bond hearing and enters an individual bond order.
C.R.S. 16-4-102C.R.S. 16-4-103C.R.S. 16-4-113- Time to see a judge
A person held in custody must be brought before a court for a bond hearing as soon as practicable and no later than 48 hours after arriving at the jail. Court closures for emergencies, or a person who refuses or is unable to attend, can extend that.
C.R.S. 16-4-102(2)(a)- Money bail
Colorado limits money bail. A court may not set a money condition for traffic or petty offenses, or for city ordinance violations with no matching state misdemeanor. Courts must presume people are eligible for release on the least restrictive conditions, and any bond schedule must weigh the person's own risk and circumstances.
C.R.S. 16-4-113C.R.S. 16-4-103- Pretrial risk assessment
Where practicable and available, a court must use an empirically developed risk assessment tool in setting bond, and county pretrial services programs must try to adopt one. Many counties use the Colorado Pretrial Assessment Tool or its revised version; some counties have no pretrial program.
C.R.S. 16-4-103(3)C.R.S. 16-4-106Colorado Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice, Pretrial services and CPAT by judicial district (2017)- Courts
District courts try felonies. County courts share jurisdiction over misdemeanors and petty offenses, issue warrants, hold preliminary hearings, and set bail in felony and misdemeanor cases. City municipal courts, which are not part of the state courts, hear city ordinance cases.
C.R.S. 13-6-106Colorado Legislative Council Staff, Issue Brief on judicial retention elections (2018)- Judges and magistrates
A nominating commission in each judicial district sends two or three names to the governor, who appoints district and county judges; the mayor appoints Denver County Court judges. After a two-year provisional term, judges face retention elections, then serve six years in district court or four years in county court. County judges in the smaller Class C and D counties need not be lawyers.
Colorado Legislative Council Staff, Issue Brief on judicial retention elections (2018)Colorado Judicial Institute, Explainer: How are judges selected in Colorado?C.R.S. 13-6-203- Prosecutors
Voters in each judicial district elect a district attorney to a four-year term. The district attorney appears for the state in every county of the district, and the governor fills vacancies.
Colo. Const. art. VI, sec. 13 (Colorado Revised Statutes 2016, Constitution)C.R.S. 20-1-102- Public defense
The Office of the State Public Defender represents people who can't pay for a lawyer in felonies, and in misdemeanors that can carry jail time, in every county.
C.R.S. 21-1-103- Jails
The sheriff of each county has charge of the county jail and the people held in it.
C.R.S. 30-10-511
Read from the statutes and court rules cited, 2026-09-30. Some of this is medium confidence and still being checked. Statutes were read through colorado.public.law, a mirror of the official code current through fall 2025. Whether bond hearing officers must be lawyers was not found. The constitution (art. II, sec. 19) lets courts deny bail for capital offenses and some violent cases; not re-read. The CPAT county list is from 2017.